(Watch instead of reading: We found the hidden cost of data centers. It’s in your electric bill. Then come back and Sign the Petition)

To the Georgia Public Service Commission and Governor Brian Kemp:

We, the undersigned residents of Georgia, call on you to halt approval of new data center and cryptocurrency mining projects until comprehensive safeguards are in place—including a binding requirement that corporate users pay the full cost of their electricity and water use—to protect families, small businesses, and our fragile electric and water infrastructure.

Georgia’s energy and water systems are being overwhelmed by unchecked corporate expansion. Data centers and crypto-mining operations consume staggering amounts of electricity and water—while families across the state struggle to afford basic utilities.

Mining a single Bitcoin consumes the same electricity as an average U.S. household uses in 24.6 years. Project Sail, a proposed data center campus in Coweta County, is projected to draw up to 900 megawatts of electricity—more than 14 times the power demand of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport—and use 9 million gallons of water every day. Some facilities, like CleanSpark’s Sandersville site, already operate at 80 megawatts, enough to power an entire small town.

Despite these massive demands, Big Tech corporations benefit from tax breaks and subsidies extended through 2033, shielding them from the true cost of their grid impact.

Meanwhile, the Georgia Public Service Commission has approved rate hikes that now cost residential customers about $43 more per month—or $516 more per year—than in 2022 so far. Families are footing the bill while corporate users remain protected.

As highlighted in the video “We Found the Hidden Cost of Data Centers. It’s in Your Electric Bill” & “AI Price Gouging: Corporate Greed Is Out of Control” (YouTube​, 2024), this pattern of corporate expansion without accountability is not unique to Georgia. It reflects a broader trend of extractive infrastructure—where tech giants consolidate profit while offloading environmental and financial costs onto working families.

My husband and I worked full-time while homeless for five years before we could afford a camper to live in. Today, we’re still fighting—helping my elderly parents cover electric bills that have surged to $700–$800 a month. Dynamic pricing and rising costs have stolen our future and possibility of ever owning our own home and we’re not alone.

We demand:

1. A full moratorium on new data center and crypto-mining permits until:

• A transparent, publicly accessible review of energy and water impacts is completed
• Community oversight is built into the approval process
• A binding framework is adopted that forces corporate users to pay 100% of their electricity and water costs—so no expense falls on Georgia families or taxpayers

2.  Enact a binding policy that requires all data centers and crypto-mining operations to pay 100% of their electricity and water costs—including demand charges, infrastructure upgrades, environmental surcharges, and cooling-related water use—so that no portion of their utility burden is shifted onto Georgia households, small businesses, or taxpayers.

3. Immediate suspension of all tax breaks, subsidies, and rate exemptions for high-demand facilities until full cost recovery is guaranteed and publicly verified.

4. Transparent billing that separates corporate energy and water costs from residential rates—ensuring families never subsidize industrial consumption.

5. Public reporting of all past and pending infrastructure projects tied to data centers and crypto mining, including projected loads and cost obligations—updated quarterly and accessible to all Georgians.

We can’t afford to subsidize Big Tech’s expansion while our families struggle to keep the lights on. Sign this petition to demand fairness, accountability, and a future where Georgia’s communities come first.

Georgia’s infrastructure burden is growing:

Georgia’s share of national data center load is staggering. As of mid-2025, metro Atlanta ranks as the second-largest data center market worldwide, responsible for roughly 13% of the U.S.’s commissioned megawatts—despite being only fourth nationally. Between 2018 and 2023, Georgia’s peak electricity demand rose 23%, driven largely by a boom in new data centers around metro Atlanta, which now account for more than half of that increase. Water strain is accelerating: an April 2025 investigation revealed that proposed new data centers in Georgia could require over 5.2 billion gallons of water annually for cooling. A single large facility can consume 200 million gallons per year—roughly the same as 2,000 homes. Meanwhile, data centers in Georgia enjoy some $350 million in state and local tax exemptions every year—money that could be used to shore up rural schools and infrastructure.

References
All claims in this petition are backed by publicly available data and reputable sources:

1. EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) Tracking electricity consumption from U.S. cryptocurrency mining operations

2.Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance Cambridge Digital Mining Industry Report

3. CleanSpark (Sandersville, GA)
CleanSpark Exceeds 14 EH/s as Sandersville Expansion Comes Online

4.Meta’s Proposed Data Center Footprint
Meta Is Planning a Data Center That Is So Large It Would Cover Half Of Manhattan

5. PBS NewsHour (Video)
The growing environmental impact of AI data centers’ energy demands

6. YouTube (Video)
AI Price Gouging: Corporate Greed Is Out of Control

7. Environment Georgia Report (PDF)
Data Centers and Georgia’s Air, Water, and Greenspace